Wink Martindale’s aggressive “pressure breaks pipes” defensive philosophy has been a challenge and a tease for the New York Giants’ developing offense for weeks now. Apparently, the Giants’ defensive coordinator got under New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s skin Thursday night, too.
Martindale and the Giants beat New England quarterback Bailey Zappé on 17 of 33 snaps and 21 total times on New England’s 59 plays (35.6%).
That’s a lot more than Belichick and the Patriots are used to dealing with in the preseason.
“Well, with what the Giants were doing, there’s a lot of reasons for some of the things we did, just to try to run the game,” Belichick said. “So, just leave it at that.”
The Giants finished with just one sack and four hits on Zappé and Brian Hoyer, the New England linebackers.
Still, having to deal with so much pressure in the first week of the preseason clearly bothered Belichick. I’m sure he’s not the first and won’t be the last coach to be annoyed by Martindale.
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